T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Rondo
By George Moore (18521933)(From Flowers of Passion, 1878) DID I love thee? I only did desire | |
To hold thy body unto mine, | |
And smite it with strange fire, | |
Of kisses burning as a wine, | |
And catch thy odorous hair, and twine | 5 |
It thro’ my fingers amorously. | |
Did I love thee? | |
Did I love thee? I only did desire | |
To watch thine eyelids lilywise | |
Closed down, and thy warm breath respire | 10 |
As it came through the thickening sighs, | |
And speak my love in such fair guise | |
Of passion’s sobbing agony. | |
Did I love thee? | |
Did I love thee? I only did desire | 15 |
To drink the perfume of thy blood | |
In vision, and thy senses tire | |
Seeing them shift from ebb to flood | |
In consonant sweet interlude, | |
And if love such a thing not be, | 20 |
I loved not thee. | |